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Books that I’ve read recently and would recommend. 🖤 Part 2

A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson. A reimagining of Dracula’s brides, written in letters to Dracula from his first wife, Constanta. I love anything vampire-related and can’t even describe how much I loved this book.

A God in the Shed by J. -F. Dubeau. A fantastic horror novel set in a messed up little town. A murder investigation, a serial killer, a god trapped in a shed (literally), the occult, ancient evils, blood and gore, and lots of twists and turns.

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang. A historical/grimdark fantasy novel heavily inspired by the Second Sino-Japanese war. Very violent and graphic, but an amazing read.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. A fun 80s demon possession story set during the satanic panic. A teen girl drops acid, gets lost in the woods, and accidentally gets possessed by a demon — and it’s up to her friend to save her. Gorey and campy.

Maggie’s Grave by David Sodergren. A pregnant woman, falsely accused of being a witch and brutally murdered, takes revenge on a Scottish town centuries later. Fun, fast-paced folk horror meets splatterpunk with an endless amount of gore.

The Island by Adrian McKinty. A tense, fast-paced thriller set in in an island off of the coast of Australia. This book genuinely stressed me out and made me want to bite my nails, but I couldn’t put it down. A bit of Wolf Creek vibes.

Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury. A ghost story and psychological horror with dual timelines. Family drama, a haunted house, toxic parents, etc.

Never Lie by Freida McFadden. A psychological thriller with a great twist. When their realtor doesn’t show up, newlyweds take shelter from a blizzard in a manor that belongs to a missing psychiatrist.

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. This book and the world within it makes my heart flutter. A dreamy, whimsical fairy tale blended with East Asian folklore.

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf. An atmospheric mystery/thriller. A writer travels to an isolated farmhouse where two unsolved murders and the disappearance of a girl took place decades earlier, and plans to finish her book while snowed in. Things go down hill after she finds a young child outside and decides to bring him in from the cold.

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati. A retelling of Greek mythology, and such a beautiful and heartbreaking book.

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon. A a high fantasy novel and standalone prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree. Amazing world building, amazing writing, amazing characters, and dragons.

Ring by Koji Suzuki. I’ve always loved the films, both Ringu and The Ring, but I’ve never read the book until now and I highly recommend it if you haven’t either.

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The house of hunger DEFINITELY satisfied mine. Ha.

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Just read a dowry of blood. Feeling distraught and a little carnal ngl

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I have two book recommendations for people who recently finished the first season of AMC’s Interview With the Vampire and may find themselves in withdrawal for media about fucked-up queer vampires!

The first is A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, which is a novella about Dracula’s first bride, Constanta, told in the form of a letter addressing her late husband after she murdered him. It’s both a haunting tale of abuse and a lush gothic story, using vampirism as a vehicle to explore an obsessive, controlling romantic relationship. It’s also very queer, as Constanta is bisexual and the relationship between Dracula and his spouses is a M/F/F/M polyamorous relationship. Gibson’s prose is deliciously gothic and I really enjoyed the way that the story plays with the epistolary form, such as Constanta refusing to grant her husband the privilege of a name in her narrative. (Originally released by a small publishing house in 2021, it was picked up by a larger publisher and rereleased with the new cover pictured above.)

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson just came out a few weeks ago and is another deliciously dark gothic fantasy. It follows Marion, a poor girl from the slums who answers a newspaper add seeking a “bloodmaid” and ends up in the service of Lisavet, a countess who feeds on human blood. In the service of her new mistress, Marion is drawn into both an obsessive, passionate relationship and a tangle of dark intrigue and secrets that threatens to destroy her new life. Henderson’s writing is both atmospheric and gory while the relationship between Marion and Lisavet is tense, sexy, and vicious. Marion is also a Black lesbian and the novel is steeped in commentary on vampires as members of the upper class who exploit and literally feed off of the lower class.

They’re both excellent books and I think if you’re looking to scratch an itch for gothic horror and queer vampire romance they might do the job! (Edit: they are also both adult novels, not YA, and have a fair amount of violence, sexual content, and gore.)

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The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

They say the thirst of blood is like a madness - they must sate it. Even with their own kin.

On the eve of her divining, the day she’ll discover her fate, seventeen-year-old Lil and her twin sister Kizzy are captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their beloved traveller community.

Forced to work in the harsh and unwelcoming castle kitchens, Lil is comforted when she meets Mira, a fellow slave who she feels drawn to in a way she doesn’t understand. But she also learns about the Dragon, a mysterious and terrifying figure of myth and legend who takes girls as gifts.

They may not have had their divining day, but the girls will still discover their fate…

Genres: retelling, fantasy, horror, romance

Get the book from Blackwell’s with free worldwide shipping here!

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Contemporary weird fiction reading list

A chart of New Weird books and other bizarre, unsettling, and uncanny literature published in the last 30 years or so. This is a follow-up to my previous chart of classic weird fiction and another selection from my list of over 200 works of weird literature.

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It's me n u next

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan

Sloan and Cherry. Cherry and Sloan. They met only a few days before masked men with machetes attacked the summer camp where they worked, a massacre that left the rest of their fellow counselors dead. Now, months later, the two are inseparable, their traumatic experience bonding them in ways no one else can understand.

But as new evidence comes to light and Sloan learns more about the motives behind the ritual killing that brought them together, she begins to suspect that her girlfriend may be more than just a survivor—she may actually have been a part of it. Cherry tries to reassure her, but Sloan only becomes more distraught. Is this gaslighting or reality? Is Cherry a victim or a perpetrator? Is Sloan confused, or is she seeing things clearly for the very first time? Against all odds, Sloan survived that hot summer night. But will she survive what comes next?

Genres: horror, thriller, romance

Get the book from Blackwell’s with free worldwide shipping here!

Listen to the book on audiobooks.com here!

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It's always ily and NEVER " I'd be your King,but always your servant. Never your keeper"

Ladies and gentlemen Renelm Rowan

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The Ultimate Dark Academia Book Recommendation Guide Ever

The title of this post is clickbait. I, unfortunately, have not read every book ever. Not all of these books are particularly “dark” either. However, these are my recommendations for your dark academia fix. The quality of each of these books varies. I have limited this list to books that are directly linked to the world of academia and/or which have a vaguely academic setting.

Dark Academia staples:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Dead Poets Society by Nancy H. Kleinbaum

Vita Nostra by Maryna Dyachenko

Dark academia litfic or contemporary:

Bunny by Mona Awad

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

White Ivy by Susie Yang

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates

Attribution by Linda Moore

Dark academia thrillers or horror:

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Dark academia fantasy/sci-fi:

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

Dark academia romance:

Gothikana by RuNyx

Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Dark academia YA or MG:

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Crave by Tracy Wolff

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Dark academia miscellaneous:

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip

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Just finished song of Achilles

I feel so unloved and pitiful. Overall 10/10 read tho

Feeling:distraught 😩

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💛 Yellow Stack 💛

Thank you for the tag @leer-reading-lire and @someonelookingpraediti! <3

Pictured from top to bottom: The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, Fangirl, Volume 2: The Manga by Rainbow Rowell, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, Circe by Madeline Miller, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell, Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Tagging anyone else who wants to do this! (If you do, tag me!)

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👀

The Taking of Jake Livingston

By Ryan Douglass

Get Out meets Danielle Vega in this YA horror where survival is not a guarantee. Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game—one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.

Started reading: 26 Dec 22

Finished reading: —

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